Sometimes, it takes something from the past to put the present into perspective. I am on my Facebook (who isn't nowadays) and a friend posted an overlay of Charlie Chaplin's Speech from "The Great Dictator" with an overlay from a song from Inception. It is quite moving. This is the speech in (almost) it entirety.
The Youtube Clip
It is striking. Charlie Chaplin did Silent Movies long after sound came to the cinema. His first speaking picture was a scathing satire of Nazi Germany. he put 1.5 Million dollars of his own money into the movie to have it made, and in late 1940, the US was still at peace with Germany. The end of the movie, the Jewish Barber is mistaken for the Emperor, and he goes on an epic speech.
We all want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone.
The way of life can be free and beautiful.
But we have lost the way.
Greed has poisoned men's souls - has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.
We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in: machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little: More than machinery we need humanity; More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.
These words resonate as much in the Fall of 1940 as it does in the Summer of 2011. We all to often sit behind our technology, our computers, our smart phones and throw epithets and slams at each other. We tear each other down wihout seeing the humanity in each other. Those who live with greed seek to destroys those you haven't.
The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me I say "Do not despair".
The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress: the hate of men will pass and dictators die and the power they took from the people, will return to the people and so long as men die [now] liberty will never perish...
I wish this is the end of greed. but unfortunately, it is not. But it is not the end of compassion, kindness, and striving to make things better. We have to keep heart.
You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy let's use that power - let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future and old age and security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie. They do not fulfil their promise, they never will. Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfil that promise. Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness.
This hits me the most. With the current situation, where people are more concerned with gaining power than doing what is right. Where Greed of Power seems so overwhelming... we still have the power to make life free and beautiful. From the Debt Limit, to fighting against gay marriage, to pushing ourselves into extreme sides. We need to fight for a world of reason. I we lose, we will be in for a very long, dark, time.